Hurricane Katrina: Grassroots Greatness and Federal Failure

Samuel Belz / September 08, 2010

On the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, credit for New Orleans’s ongoing recovery continues to go to the grassroots, not the federal government. Grassroots had the reflexes and staying power that government did not.

There’s no question that the disaster and aftermath of Katrina lifted the veil on a dysfunctional system. Katrina revealed a city full of schools that didn’t work, corruption, weak infrastructure, and issues of race and class.

But it’s also a story of people from all kinds of backgrounds coming together to fix problems—and that’s why New Orleans is recovering. (more…)